Rez Exelon
AH enthusiast
Okay, so it's UPDATE TIME!
Little good news, little confusing news. First off, I managed to win an absolutely killer gunbroker auction last week. Or week and a half ago. It's been a busy time here. But the package came in Thursday and I finally got a chance between work stuff today to actually mess with it. What was in the package you ask? How about
1x RCBS 375 H&H trim Die
1x RCBS 338 Win Die set
1x RCBS 458 Win Mag Die Set
1x RCBS 240 Weatherby Die set
1x Lee 458 Win Mag Die set
1x Hornady 300 H&H Die Set
1x Hornady 458 Win Mag Die set
Oh And HOW ABOUT 1X LEE 416 TAYLOR DIE SET PLUS 17 PIECES OF QUAL CART BRASS!!
All of that came for $160 shipped. Considering the Lee dies and the brass are made of unobtanium infused with unicorn blood and forged in the fires of Mount Doom itself, I was prepared to go much higher. After the recent Amazon "buy 416 taylor dies that turned out to be 6.5x300 WBY" fiasco I was ready to drop coin especially after the pictures showed the die markings.
Before I had a chance to actually play with the new dies and such, I did manage to clean, pack and ship the Hornady dies over to @CZDiesel as a thank you for hooking me up with the 404 Jeffery ammo I needed on that project. First things first after all.
So today I got a chance to play. First up --- 6 of the pieces of brass were primed, so what better opportunity to de-prime them than using the Lee die. Sure the Redding one I have was preset, but I wanted this staged too. So I took it apart, cleaned it, wire brushed the threads, etc. Got it setup and wouldn't you know it worked great.
So we come to the real part of the test. Because I already had a die, and a 416 Ruger die I could use to seat the bullet, the real need was for a dedicated Taylor die that could crimp. So I queued up that die, cleaned it and set it. Now, to make things interesting, I'm doing my dummy rounds using a 410gr Woodleigh --- mainly because when I started this project I had those and no other bullets. So this one has become my test dummy. It happens to be somewhat on the larger side compared to the other choices now in stock here, but it is what it is.
But that does bring me to the first thing with the Lee die. I put it in, and did the setup routine:
1. Screw die in until touching the brass, back out a turn.
2. Seat the bullet to the groove, back out the seating stem.
3. Screw die in until it had a nice crimp
4. Put seating stem back in.
So Step 4 is where the process kind of broke down --- With the die configured for the right amount of crimp, the case/bullet were so far into the die that to set the bullet right would require the seating stem to be unscrewed. So this was a minor problem.
I solved it by going back to the well. I pulled everything, resized, and then used the 416 Ruger seating die to actually seat the bullet. Then, with the seating stem out, ran it through the Lee 416 Taylor die to apply the crimp. Extra step, but afterwards, I took the dummy round and ran it in and out of the chamber 6 times and the bullet didn't budge. That was the problem in earlier rounds --- after sizing and seating the bullet would be fine, but after 2x in/out of the chamber it'd just kind of fall apart.
So with this setup, I appear to have positive neck tension, a good crimp, and a bullet that doesn't move when being worked, and one that I anticipate wouldn't budge under recoil either. So all in all this appears to be a win. Once I get some test rounds made up and out to the range, I'll probably still order a custom crimp die though. I do anticipate that were I loading something like a 350gr Speer HotCor then the Lee die would work as an all in one. But for the Woodleigh and even the Hornady 400gr that I have the bullets are just too long.
Little good news, little confusing news. First off, I managed to win an absolutely killer gunbroker auction last week. Or week and a half ago. It's been a busy time here. But the package came in Thursday and I finally got a chance between work stuff today to actually mess with it. What was in the package you ask? How about
1x RCBS 375 H&H trim Die
1x RCBS 338 Win Die set
1x RCBS 458 Win Mag Die Set
1x RCBS 240 Weatherby Die set
1x Lee 458 Win Mag Die set
1x Hornady 300 H&H Die Set
1x Hornady 458 Win Mag Die set
Oh And HOW ABOUT 1X LEE 416 TAYLOR DIE SET PLUS 17 PIECES OF QUAL CART BRASS!!
All of that came for $160 shipped. Considering the Lee dies and the brass are made of unobtanium infused with unicorn blood and forged in the fires of Mount Doom itself, I was prepared to go much higher. After the recent Amazon "buy 416 taylor dies that turned out to be 6.5x300 WBY" fiasco I was ready to drop coin especially after the pictures showed the die markings.
Before I had a chance to actually play with the new dies and such, I did manage to clean, pack and ship the Hornady dies over to @CZDiesel as a thank you for hooking me up with the 404 Jeffery ammo I needed on that project. First things first after all.
So today I got a chance to play. First up --- 6 of the pieces of brass were primed, so what better opportunity to de-prime them than using the Lee die. Sure the Redding one I have was preset, but I wanted this staged too. So I took it apart, cleaned it, wire brushed the threads, etc. Got it setup and wouldn't you know it worked great.
So we come to the real part of the test. Because I already had a die, and a 416 Ruger die I could use to seat the bullet, the real need was for a dedicated Taylor die that could crimp. So I queued up that die, cleaned it and set it. Now, to make things interesting, I'm doing my dummy rounds using a 410gr Woodleigh --- mainly because when I started this project I had those and no other bullets. So this one has become my test dummy. It happens to be somewhat on the larger side compared to the other choices now in stock here, but it is what it is.
But that does bring me to the first thing with the Lee die. I put it in, and did the setup routine:
1. Screw die in until touching the brass, back out a turn.
2. Seat the bullet to the groove, back out the seating stem.
3. Screw die in until it had a nice crimp
4. Put seating stem back in.
So Step 4 is where the process kind of broke down --- With the die configured for the right amount of crimp, the case/bullet were so far into the die that to set the bullet right would require the seating stem to be unscrewed. So this was a minor problem.
I solved it by going back to the well. I pulled everything, resized, and then used the 416 Ruger seating die to actually seat the bullet. Then, with the seating stem out, ran it through the Lee 416 Taylor die to apply the crimp. Extra step, but afterwards, I took the dummy round and ran it in and out of the chamber 6 times and the bullet didn't budge. That was the problem in earlier rounds --- after sizing and seating the bullet would be fine, but after 2x in/out of the chamber it'd just kind of fall apart.
So with this setup, I appear to have positive neck tension, a good crimp, and a bullet that doesn't move when being worked, and one that I anticipate wouldn't budge under recoil either. So all in all this appears to be a win. Once I get some test rounds made up and out to the range, I'll probably still order a custom crimp die though. I do anticipate that were I loading something like a 350gr Speer HotCor then the Lee die would work as an all in one. But for the Woodleigh and even the Hornady 400gr that I have the bullets are just too long.
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